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Several county jails face inmate overcrowding

Bailey Schulz

LINCOLN--In 2015, two prisoners were killed by fellow inmates in Tecumseh State Prison following a riot on Mother’s Day. Two more inmates were killed in 2017 after inmates took control of part of the maximum security prison.

Some have pointed to overcrowding in prisons as the cause of these incidents. Now, many county sheriffs worry that prison overcrowding has in turn increased the average daily population of county jails, with a large number of facilities at or above capacity.

In January of 2015, Nebraska’s state prisons were running at 160 percent capacity, holding about 2,000 more inmates than they were designed to hold.